Expression mechanism for automatic musical instruments



Feb, 10. 1925- 1,525,497

T. DANQUARD ET AL EXPRESSION MECHANISM FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSOriginal Filed Sept, l6 l9l 8 mu'c I J H m.

ax s/2% Zig arc/vac enia [cud 291d Wei Cie-st 0.5 ZJaB-kvr Patented Feb.10, 1925;

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS DANQUARD AND AUGUST YOUNG, OF NEW' YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR-S TOAUTO PNEUMATIC ACTION COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

EXPRESSION MECHANISM FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Application filed September 16, 1918, Serial No. 254.198. Renewed June26, 1922. Serial No. 570.989.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THoMAs DAN- QUARD and AUGUST YOUNG, citizens of theUnited States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and Stateof New York, have invented a new and useful Expression Mechanism forAutomatic Musical Instruments, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to expression mechanism for automatic musicalinstruments and more particularly to improvements in expressionmechanism of the type shown and described in the prior patents to Welteet al., No. 1,008,291 issued November 7, 1911 and No. 1,225,902 issuedMay 15, 1917.

It is the general object of our invention to improve the details ofconstruction and to simplify the method of operation of expressionmechanism of the type described, thereby securing increased economy ofmanufacture and increased reliability in operation.

With this general object in view, one feature of our invention relatesto the provision of an improved and simplified self-contained doublevalve mechanism by which different parts of the expression device may becontrolled.

A further feature of our invention relates to the provision of valvemechanism which m'ay be controlled from two separate tracker openings,or which may be entirely controlled from a single opening, so long onlyas the opening is uncovered. I

Our invention further relates to an improved valve block for crescendoand decrescendo effects, to an improved manual cut-out mechanism, to animproved forte valve structure, and to other details, arrangements andcombinations of parts which will be hereinafter described and moreparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

A preferred form of our invention is shown in the drawings in which Fig.1 is a diagrammatic view of a portion of an expression mechanismembodying our improvements, and

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view to be described.

Referring to the drawings we have indicated at 10 a portion of a windchest which is connected to the exhausting mech'anism of the instrument.A pipe 11 leading from the striking pncumatics or actions of theinstrument is connected through a chamber 12 to the interior of agovernor pneumatic 13. A passage 14 is formed through the movable leafof the pneumatic 13 to the wind chest 10, said passage 14 beingcontrolled by a swinging valve 15 pivoted at 16 to the movable leaf ofthe pneumatic, and partially closing the inner end of the passage 14. Aspring 17 tends to expend the pneumatic against the exhaust tension ofthe instrument. The valve 15 is connected by a link 18 to the movableleaf 19 of an expression pneumatic 20. The mechanism thus far describedis similar to that shown in the Welte patents, and forms no part of ourinvention.

To produce the forte effect, the pneumatic 20 must be quickly deflated,thereby lifting the valve 15 and opening the passage 14 to its greatestextent. Forthis purpose we provide a pipe 21 leading from the expressionpneumatic 20 to a valve structure A containing a chamber 22, a passage230011- nected to the exhaust of the instrument, a valve 24 controllinga port 25 openin from the passage 23 to the chamber 22, and a pouch ordiaphragm 26 by which the valve 24 is controlled. A spring 27 is mountetabove the valve 24, the lower end of the spring engaging a collar 28fixed on the upper end of the valve stem. A screw 29 forms an adjustablestop which limits the travel of the valve 24. The pouch 26 is controlledby a tube 30 extending to a tracker opening 31, and the space below thepouch or diaphragm 26 is also connected by the usual bleed opening tothe exhaust chamber 23. Y

When the forte effect is desired a perforation in the music sheetuncovers the tracker opening 31, admitting atmosphere pressure whichraises the diaphragm 26 and valve 24, thus connecting the exhaustchamher through the port 25 and chamber 22 to the tube 21 and expressionpneumatic 20. The tube 21 being of relatively large size, the pneumaticis quickly deflated and the valve 15 is opened, producing a sudden forteeffect. The abruptness of this effect may be determined by the adjustingscrew 33 and the efiiect will continue so long as the trackeropening 31is uncovered The stop screw 29 limits the travel of the valve, and thespring 27 closes the valve as soon as the tracker opening is covered bythe note sheet. The forte effect is thus cont-rolled froma singletracker opening and is limited by the length of the perforation in thenote sheet.

The expression may also be varied by changing the position of the usualloud pedal of the instrument, and for this purpose we provide theloud-pedal pneumatic 35 connected by a tube 36 to a valve chamber 37inavalvemechanism B. A double valve 38 in the valve chamber 37 controlsan up or port 39 connected to the atmosphere, ands. lower port 40connected to an exhaust chamber 41. A pouch 42 below the valve 38 coversa chamber 43 connected by passage 44 to a port 45 covered by acap 46mounted on the lower side oi a diaphragm 47 When the cap 46 is raised,the port 45 is connected to the atmosphere, and when the port 45 isclosed the passage 44 and chamber" 43 'are exhausted through the spacesurrounding a plunger 48 which extends into the exhaust passage 41. Theplunger 48 is mounted on a diaphragm 50 covering a chamber 51connectedby a tube 52 to a tracker opening 53.

When the opening 53 is uncovered, the diaphragm 50 is raised, pushingthe plunger 48 upward and thereby lifting the cap 46 and opening thepassage 44 to the atmos phere. The valve 38 is thus raised byatmospheric pressure on the diaphra i 42, connecting the exhaust to thepipe 36 and deflating the loud-pedal pneumatic 3 5, which actioncontinues so long as the tracker opening. 53"is uncovered hen the opening .53 is closed the parts return quickly to normal position. In thisway the loud pedal mechanism is controlled from a, single trackeropening, the pneumatic 35 being deflated so long as the opening isuncovered. This arrangement is useful when theins'trum'ent is.used withmusic not specially pre pared for controlling the WVelte mechanism.When, however, the usual VVelte music is provided, it is desirable tocontrol the loud pedal from two separate openings, by one of which it isthrown into action and by the other of which it is released. For thispurpose we connect the tube 54 at one end tothe chamber 55 above thepouch or diaphragm 47, and at the other end to a valve chamber 56 inavalve mechanism C, said chamber containing a double valve 57 controllinga. lower port to the exhaust passage 58 and an upper port connected tothe atmosphere. At its lower end the valve stem of the valve 57 restsupon a diaphragm 59 controlled through a pipe 60 from a tracker opening61, the diaphragm chamber halving the usual bleed opening to the exhaustpassage 58. At the upper end oi the valve stem a head 62 is supported bya diaphragm 63 underlying a chamber 64 connected by a passage 65 andbleed opening 66 to the valve chamber 56. The-passage 65 is alsoconnected by a tube 67 to a tracker opening 68.

When the double valve 57 is raised by uncovering the tracker opening 61,the valve chamber 56 is connected to the exhaust and the cap 46 (valvemechanism B) is raised to admit atmospheric pressure to the passage 44,thus causing deflation oi the loudpedal pneumatic. At the same time thechamber 64' above the diaphragm 63 is con nected to the exhaust throughthe bleed opening6'6', thus maintaining the valve'57 in raised p ositioneven after the tracker opening 61 is closed. tracker opening 68 isuncovered, air is ad'- mitted through the tube 67 and. passage 65 todepress the diaphragm 63 and valve 57, thus closing the passage to theexhaust and again admitting atmospheric pressure to the chamber 56,whereby the passage 44 is closed and the loud-pedal pneumatic isrestored to normal inflated position.

o have thus provided loud-pedal mechanism which may be controlled from asingle tracker opening to operate so longas the opening is uncovered, orwhich may be controlled from two tracker openings, one of which.controls deflation and the other inflation oi the loud-pedal pneumatic.

The valve mechanism C above described,

for alternately connecting the tube 54 to the exhaust or to theatinosphere,-corre spends in function to the separate va lve structuresand r in the first Nelle paten't. It will be seen that our improvedstructure, while performing all the func tions or" the earlier device,entirely omits the double valve g" together with all its connections.This simplification in valve control is a very important feature of ourinvention. I

We will now describe certain improve ments in the mechanism for securingcrescendo and decrescendo effects. For this purpose a tube 70 isconnected to a valve .mechanism C, identical with the valve mechanism Cabove described. The mechanism G is connected by pipes 71 and 72 totracker openings 73and 74. The edect of uncovering the opening 73 is toproduce and maintain exhaust tension in the pipe 70, and the uncoveringor the trackeropening 74 restores atmospheric pressure therein.

The pipe 70 is connected to a branched pas sage 75. one branch oi saidpassage leading through a bleeding port 76 to the expression pneumatic2'0,andthe other branch of said passage also leading to the pneumatic 20but being controlled by'an adjusting screw lVhen, howev r, the

77. This branched passage is formed in a valve block 78 which alsocontains a second passage 79 leading from the pneumatic 20 to theatmosphere and controlled by a second adjusting screw 80.

With this construction there is a continuous leakage of air through thepassage 79 to the pneumatic 20, and that there is also a small leakageof air through the branched passage 75 under normal conditions. hen thetracker opening 7 3 is uncovered, however, the pipe 7 O is connected tothe exhaust and the pneumatic 20 is deflated through both branches ofthe passage 7 5, the combined area of these branches being sufficient toovercome the leakage through the passage 79. The relative effective areaof passages 75 and 79 may be controlled by the adjusting screws 77 and80. IVe have found from experience that the adjustment of these passagesis more readily accomplished when the bleeding port 7 6 of fixed area isprovided.

For manual control of the expression we provide a hand lever 81 and alost motion connection through a link 82 to the movable leaf 19 of theexpression pneumatic 20. Whenever the hand control is used, it isdesirable that the automatic control should be inoperative, and for thispurpose we provide the pneumatic 20 with an atmosphere port 83 normallyclosed by a valve 84 adjustably mounted on the link 82. As soon as thehand lever 81 is moved to the left to vary the position of the leaf 19,the valve 84 will be raised, thus directly connecting the interior ofthe pneumatic 20 to the atmosphere, and rendering it impossible for anyof the expression connections to exhaust he pneumatic.

In Fig. 2 we have shown in detail the means by which we connect thelower end of a valve stem with the diaphragm by which it is lifted. Forthis purpose a block 90 is secured to, the upper face of the diaphragm,said block being provided with a recess within which the valve stem isfreely movable. A layer of cloth or other suitable material 91 is fixedto the upper end of the block and is provided with a small opening toreceive the valve stem. When the diaphragm is first raised it will pressthe block upward until the valve stem is seated in the bottom of therecess. The frictional engagement of the layer 91 will retain the partsin this relative position so that there after no lost motion between thestem and the diaphragm will be possible. In this manner we prevent lostmotion without necessitating provision for accurate adjustment.

Having thus described our invention, it will be evident that changes andmodifi- 'ations can be made therein without departing from the spiritand scope of our invention as set forth in the claims, and we do notwish to be otherwise limited to the details herein disclosed, but whatwe do claim is 1. In an expression device for automatic musicalinstruments, an expression pneumatic having an air passage openingtherein, sheet-controlled valve mechanism effective to connect saidpassage to the exhaust or to the atmosphere, means to variably restrictsaid passage, a by-pass around said restricting means, said by-passbeing connected to said pneumatic by a bleeding port, a second passagefrom said pneumatic to the atmosphere, and means to variably restrictsaid second passage.

2. In an automatic musical instrument having an air passage, controllingdevices for .aid passage comprising a valve chamber connected to saidair passage, exhaust and atmospheric connections to said chamher, adouble valve controlling said connections, means includin a trackerconnection effective to cause said valve to be moved to establishexhaust connection to said chamher, a diaphragm connected to said doublevalve and additional to said means, a chamber having a portion coveredby said diaphragm, a. separate tracker connection to said portion ofsaid diaphragm chamber, and a restricted passage from said valve chamberto the same portion of said diaphragm chamber.

3. In an automatic musical instrument having an air passage, controllingdevices for said passage comprising a valve chamber connected to saidair passage, exhaust and atmospheric connections to said chamber, adouble valve controlling said connections, and means for positioningsaid valve, said means including a tracker connection having arestricted passage connected to the exhaust and a separate trackerconnection having a restricted passage connected to the atmosphere.

4. In an automatic musical instrument having an air passage, means toconnect said passage to the exhaust or to the atmosphere and to maintainexhaust connection until released, said means including a trackerconnection having a restricted passage connected to the exhaust, and asecond separate tracker connection having a restricted passage connectedto the atmosphere but exhausted when said first tracker connection isuncovered by a music sheet opening and thereafter maintained at exhausttension until itself uncovered by a music sheet opening to connect saidpassage to the atmosphere.

5. In an automatic musical instrument having an air passage, devicescontrolled from a. tracker opening effective to connect said passage tothe exhaust, devices controlled from a second tracker opening effectiveto connect said passage to the atmosphere, and additional devicescontrolled from "a. single tracker opening, effiective tov connect said.passage to the exhaust so long only as said single opening is:uncovered.

berand connected from singletracker opening, effective to temporarilyopen said passage. i a r 7. In. an expression device for automaticmusical instruments, an expression pneumatic, means. to deflate saidpneumatic manually, and a valve associated with said. means; by whichthe nrterior of said pneumatic is directly connected to the atmos pherewhen. such'man-ua-l deflation occurs.

8. In an expression device for automatic musical instruments, anexpression pneumatic having. an atmosphere port, a hand lever,connections between said hand lever and the movable leaf or"- saidpneumatic, said connections including a link having, a lost motionconnection to said movable leaf, and a va-lve adjustab-ly secured tosaid link and. efiective to control said atmosphere port.

9. In an automatic musical instrument, a valve-chamber, anair passagethrough said chamber, avalve in said chamber for said passage: saidvalve. having-an axial valve stem sheet controlled means to opensaid"valve, a. spring to close said valve and anadj usta-ble stop screwthreaded H1 arm d- Wall of saidchamber, substantially alignedwith saidvalve and 'efi ective to limit the axial travel of said valve.

10. In an automatic musicalinstrument,

a pneumatic, tracker controlled-means to connect said pneumatic to theexhaust, so long as a. certain tracker opening is uncovered, andseparate tracker controlled de vices B'l'liGCtIVQ- to-co-nnect. saidpneumatic to the exhaust when ausecond tracker opening is momentarilyuncoveredand to retain said. connection until a third tracker opening isuncovered.

11. In an automatic musical instrument,i

a valve chamber, connections from said chamber to.- theexhaust andto theatmos. 1

direction and to exert yielding tension to Withdraw said valve in theopposite direction.

In testimony whereof We have hereunto affixed our signatures.

THOB/IAS, DANQUARD. AUGUST YOUNG.

